


between scenes and between sheets

by swamp__witch



Category: Dollhouse
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drabble Collection, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Mild Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:01:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29523333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swamp__witch/pseuds/swamp__witch
Summary: a collection of sort-of related drabbles in which topher brink and adelle dewitt fall in love. canon divergence: there are no trysts with dolls bc they found each other instead and i changed the dystopic ending as well bc i can do what i want
Relationships: Topher Brink & Adelle DeWitt, Topher Brink/Adelle DeWitt





	1. a good team

“No one will know the details of your engagements, but you.” The lie rolled easily off her tongue. It was easier to let clients believe that everything was automated. Done by an algorithm, rather than by the woman they were facing, and another man working behind the scenes. 

With Topher’s predecessor, she had done all of the work, and had given the completed engagement parameters and personality matrix for the programmer to just input into the computers. However, when Topher was hired, she quickly discovered his methods required a bit more cooperation on her part. 

She wouldn’t have noticed it if she weren’t so anal, but Topher had a tendency to add unnecessary details to the actives’ imprints; sometimes a strange mannerism or craving for chocolate slipped in. Luckily for him, none of these details had any significant effect on the engagement experience, yet. Before it could go that far, Adelle decided to confront him about it.

“Is there a reason Whiskey needs to have a fear of spiders for a date with the Goya heir?” She watched his reflection in the window as he nervously entered her office, but resigned herself not to face him. 

“Not really, I just thought… well… now, really, you should take this as a compliment-”

“What is it, Mr. Brink?” She turned and glared to stop his babbling.

“The way you design the imprints, as brilliant as it is, and it is, brilliant, it’s too… perfect.” He wrung his hands and slouched his shoulders trying to make himself as small as possible. This man was very afraid of her. Good.

“What do you mean, ‘too perfect’?” She made her way to the couch and gestured for him to sit across from her. He did so, still looking like he was expecting a slap at any second.

“The dolls-” She raised a brow at him. “The actives. When they’re imprinted they should be given a full personality; likes, dislikes, fears, memories of an embarrassing crush in the eighth grade. They need it. Otherwise, their minds feel incomplete. The fantasy only works if the actives think they’re real.”

“If our clients wanted real people, they wouldn’t be coming here.” She tried to brush off his explanation, but a part of her knew it was right. “But, since client satisfaction has gone up since you’ve been adding your little details, I’ll continue to allow them.” His face lit up and she had to resist the smile forming on her lips. She stood and he followed as she led him toward the door.

“You know,” He stopped and turned back toward her. “It might be better if we worked together, designing the imprints, because, well, I had some ideas about introducing more flaws to make clients want to fix our actives, which is an interesting phenomenon. Did you know that the hero-complex-”

“Yes, well, it is my job to design the engagements, but I’ll certainly keep that in mind.” She attempted to corral him towards the door once more.

“Right, of course, I don’t want to take your job, I just thought, maybe, we’d make a good team.” He was incredibly naive as he looked at her with that lopsided grin. And she was incredibly stupid for letting it make her breath catch in her throat.

“I’ll consider it. Goodnight, Mr. Brink.” She managed to push him out the door and shut it behind him. She was in very great need of a very stiff drink.


	2. man reaction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> pre season 1

It was actually happening. He, Topher Brink, was making out with his super hot boss, who could fire him from his super awesome job in a second if he did anything wrong. It was super terrifying. But, by some miracle, everything was going well, and she was sighing into him and running her nails through his hair like a kitten, which could mean only one thing: he was a sex god.

Despite this boost to his ego, he wasn’t quite sure what to do with his hands, which she noticed and, without breaking their kiss, planted them firmly on her ass. This did not go over well for Mr. Brink, who was trying very hard not to get hard, and when she pushed back into his hands he nearly choked on his own gasp.

“Is something wrong?” Adelle broke away with a crease in her brow. Topher thought he saw a flash of insecurity in her eyes.

“No! Nothing’s wrong! Everything’s great!” He was never a good liar. She looked at him skeptically.

“Do you want to stop?” As she said the words he could feel her ice queen persona returning to protect her.

“No! Like I said - everything’s great - um, even a little too great-” He couldn’t make himself say it, for fear of what the ice queen would do. She began to pull herself off of him, losing her patience.  
“Wait! I just - the only thing -” He lowered his voice, “I seem to be getting a man reaction.”

“A what?”

“You know - a reaction, thing, that a man gets -” He saw her eyes flicker down when the realization came to her. She gave a sigh of relief and smiled.

“Well let’s get that taken care of then.”


	3. physique

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> pre season 1

It’s not like she spent a considerable amount of time thinking about Topher Brink’s body. If she had spent any time at all, it would have been completely left up to her imagination. He wore far too many layers to give anything away, but considering his diet consisted of foods commonly eaten by American school children, she didn’t imagine him having an Olympian physique.

So, when she peeled the cotton and poly-blend layers off of him in her office that night, she was, at the very least, surprised. He was no male model, but he certainly wasn’t the mess she was expecting. Topher Brink had a physique, and a nice one at that; certainly not the physique one would expect from someone who spent fourteen hours a day sitting at a computer. There was clear muscle definition under the, once again, surprising, amount of hair that covered him from his collarbone to down below the top of his jeans. 

She had pursued Topher mostly out of boredom. She found his obvious attraction to her endearing and refreshing, having thought herself too old to be wanted like that for quite some time. She liked the power he gave her, and the fact that whatever she did, he was completely undone by it. She never planned to give him the same power over her. But as Topher stood shirtless in her dimly lit office, an unimaginable thought popped into Adelle’s mind.

Topher Brink was sexy. And she was undone.


	4. a moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> pre season 1, perhaps the night after the last one, idk i imagine they did a lot of messing around on adelle's fancy office couches

If the rising sun’s light hadn’t filtered through the shades of her office windows and landed on her eyelids at that exact moment, they’d both be in the Attic. Her eyes opened and immediately found the clock on the end table next to the couch. Panic crept into her formerly relaxed body. She jumped off the couch, snatching the blanket off of a sleeping Topher and ran to her office bathroom.

“Topher! Get up! Mr. Dominic gets to work at 6:30!”

Topher sleepily opened his eyes as his body recoiled from the absence of the blanket. He had to read the time twice in order for full comprehension to reach him: 6:27 am. He scrambled to reassemble the previous night’s clothing, but found himself being shoved into the elevator by an already miraculously dressed Adele. She shoved his clothes into his hand and hit the elevator button.

“Shoes!” 

They clattered through the closing elevator doors.


	5. profit and trade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> based off season 1 ep 11 "briar rose" i always thought it was unbelievable that adelle would be charitable without SOME sort of persuasion

“How’d you sell Dewitt on it?”

“I can be incredibly persuasive.”

He had always been fascinated by psychology. Partly due to his interest in the brain and partly due to his inability to understand people. Every Dollhouse employee had been told that what they do helps people, and when he stopped long enough to even consider morality, he believed it. 

The idea to use Dolls to help traumatized kids overcome their trauma was born the minute he saw the technology, but he quickly learned that no client equals no engagement. He’d either have to find some righteous rich dude to fund his experiment, or gain some power over Dewitt. Surprisingly, he found the latter easier to obtain.

When they began their “relationship,” if the label even applied, he was hesitant to ask for any favors. Adelle was guarded and any misstep could put a quick end to their nights and a swift entry into the attic for dear Mr. Brink. Even after two years a favor from the boss lady still seemed unlikely; a trade, however, could be arranged.


	6. vows and confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> based on season 2 ep 1 "vows" and that scene with saunders but this time it's adelle

She hadn’t seen him since before the Alpha incident. The second Alpha incident that is. He hadn’t even called her with his usual daily complaints for a few days, which led her to believe the incident had affected him more than he let on. She decided to check on him that morning, hoping her unnecessary presence in his lab would alert him to her growing need for their relationship to return to its usual state.

However, when she parted from her conversation with Boyd, she only found Ivy in the imprinting room, doing Topher’s job, and certainly not as well. 

“Where’s Topher?”

“He’s in his server room,” Adelle nodded and moved in the direction of Topher’s cave, “I think he’s sleeping. He was up late last night, reprogramming the drives we lost.” Ivy continued.

“I’ll come back later then.” Adelle was not going to come back later. She continued her track to the server room, closing the imprinting room doors behind her to avoid Ivy’s prying eyes. 

When she turned the corner into the computing room Topher had turned into his nest, she was disappointed to see that Ivy wasn’t lying. Her overworked genius was fast asleep on his dingy cot, his back to her. She leaned against the concrete wall, wondering whether she should actually come back later, but decided she was done waiting.

She slipped off her shoes and made her way toward his cot, moving his crumpled clothes out of the way as she went. She sat on the edge of his cot and brushed her hand lightly over his shoulder, hoping to wake him quickly and easily. When this failed, a surge of pent up frustration rushed through her. She leaned down and pressed her lips to his neck, running her hand down his chest. He stirred, his eyes opening slowly as his head turned to face her.

“Oh thank God.”

“For what, dear?” She asked, placing another kiss to his clavicle.

“I’m not just dreaming.”

Later, as he drifted back to sleep, Adelle gathered her clothing and began to dress, satisfied to have reinstituted their system. As she began to stand, she heard Topher sleepily mumble something.

“I love you.” She heard. Her breath caught in her throat. Without warning, her mind went back to the previous week, when she had been scared shitless, alone with Alpha in her office, sure she was going to die; and before her mind could return to the present, she had said it back.


End file.
